Is Ms Sturgeon a unionist?

Sir, - In politics, words matter and Nicola Sturgeon now feels after a lifetime of identifying herself as a nationalist, the words national and nationalism have a very negative and ugly meaning for her.

Her sentiment was revealing and must come as a shock to most of her supporters who take great pride in their nationalism.

It would appear she has belatedly come to the conclusion that the rest of us who didn’t share her nationalist political ideology were indeed correct all along.

So Ms Sturgeon is committed to reassuring us all that somehow Scottish nationalism is different from every other nationalist movement throughout the world.

Ms Sturgeon said: “If Scotland is your home, and you live here and you feel you have a stake in the country, you are Scottish and you have as much say over the future of the country as I do.”

Paradoxically, Ms Sturgeon is expressing the very idea of Britishness where individuals of different nationalities can live together equally in union as Britons with a civic, inclusive, open and tolerant view of each other.

Has Nicola Sturgeon seen the light and is she really a unionist at heart? Iain G Richmond. Guildy House, Monikie.

But the First Minister certainly does not manifest similar views in relation to the president of China, a country with an endless list of civil rights violations, no free press, a habit of bullying its neighbours and in cahoots with many a third-rate dictator eager for cash